Parents In Charge News
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- posted 5:49 AM

 
Mayoral campaign turns into Trivial Pursuit game
L.A. Daily News - Chris Weinkopf: "Back in 2000, Villaraigosa helped to defeat Proposition 38, which would have given California families vouchers and, thus, the sort of educational opportunity Villaraigosa considers crucial for his own kids. As a result of the initiative's failure, many parents who would also like their children 'to understand the role that faith plays' in their lives must make great personal sacrifices, choose home-schooling or reluctantly send their kids to a secular and too often failing LAUSD campus.
For these parents, who pay steep taxes to support the LAUSD, the 'best education' that the Villaraigosas have obtained for their own kids remains out of reach."
- posted 9:49 AM

 
House members continue to weigh school-choice bill
The Sun News | 04/04/2005 | House members continue to weigh school-choice bill: "In Milwaukee, where about 15,000 use vouchers to attend private schools, graduation rates improved by 25 percent after the city's school-choice program was created, school-choice advocate Eric O'Keefe told legislators at the hearing last week."
- posted 9:37 AM

 
Vouchers lack votes in House
Vouchers lack votes in House: "Supporters of the measure believe some legislators changed their minds because of intense lobbying. Clint Bolick, president of the Phoenix-based Alliance for School Choice, said SB 1506 is facing an avalanche of criticism because it is the most far-reaching of any choice legislation.

'This bill is the most ambitious of the school-choice proposals. It's not surprising that even though Arizona is poised to make history . . . that some legislators would get cold feet because the special interests on the other side are aiming most of their fire at this,' Bolick said. "
- posted 8:25 AM

 
Poll: 55% back school vouchers
Poll: 55% back school vouchers: "More than half of Hoosiers think the state should give families tax money to shift children out of failing public schools and into the public, private or parochial schools of their choice, according to a poll for the Indianapolis Star and WTHR (Channel 13)."
- posted 8:07 AM

 
Maryland and Virginia students deserve more choices
Maryland and Virginia students deserve more choices - The Washington Times: Editorials/OP-ED - April 01, 2005: "The Children Scholarship Fund of Baltimore, a private organization that funds school-choice scholarships, is funding tuition scholarships for 495 students from low-income families to attend 94 different private schools this year. Still, the scholarship organiztion in Baltimore currently has more than 2,000 children on a waiting list for scholarships.
How much longer must these children have to wait? It's time city and state leaders work to deliver real school choice for Baltimore. "
- posted 6:10 AM

 
Education tax credits
Education tax credits - The Washington Times: Editorials/OP-ED - April 01, 2005: "In the House of Delegates, I will work with other reform-minded legislators to liberate those who feel trapped in a failed system. What we need is a law that allows taxpayers who do not send their children to a public school to receive a property-tax refund (for an amount no larger that the percentage of their property tax that currently goes to their local public school) or an equivalent tax credit on their state income taxes. "
- posted 6:07 AM

 
Stupidity trickling down (US)
Thomas Sowell: Stupidity trickling down: "If education provides anything, it should be an ability to think -- that is, to weigh one idea against an opposing idea, and to use evidence and logic to try to determine what is true and what is false. That is precisely what our schools and colleges are failing to teach today.
It is worse than that. Too many teachers, from the elementary schools to the graduate schools, see their role as indoctrinating students with what these teachers regard as the right beliefs and opinions. Usually that means the left's beliefs and opinions."
- posted 5:56 AM

 
National Wealth Tax to Fund Education?
National Wealth Tax to Fund Education?: "The problems that beset public education are deep and inherent, rooted in the very nature of any enterprise that obtains its revenue not from willing payers, but from taxes. Throwing more money at public education can no more solve its problems than sending more foreign aid to North Korea can end its inability to feed its people."
- posted 8:31 AM

 
Assessing the KIPP Schools -- a New Perspective
Assessing the KIPP Schools -- a New Perspective (washingtonpost.com): " KIPP provides children with the motivation and opportunity to excel that they might not have in their regular public schools. Our evidence is also not inconsistent with the notion that regular public schools might have a great deal to learn from KIPP's philosophy and strategy.' "
- posted 8:27 AM

 
S&P Opens A Rating Service On Schools
S&P Opens A Rating Service On Schools (washingtonpost.com): "The site calls this the Instructional Spending Allocation Index, which measures the proportion of increased spending over time allocated for instruction and provides a way to track money raised with the intent of improving student performance. "
- posted 8:24 AM

 
Why do teachers fight school choice? Fear it will work?
The Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News - 30-Mar-05 - Fergus Cullen:
Why do teachers fight school choice? Fear it will work?: "Stripped of all the false arguments, only the real reason for Estabrook's and the teachers unions opposition to school choice remains: They are afraid it might work.
If parents have more choices, they might send their children to places other than the local public school, threatening the education establishment's monopoly, job security and benefits packages. Their opposition has nothing to do with what's best for parents and kids."
- posted 8:04 AM

 
Multiculturalism lecturer supports school choice
Multiculturalism lecturer supports school choice - The Good 5 Cent Cigar - News: "Fuller said parental choice, which includes giving parents the resources to home-school their children or obtain school vouchers, offers low-income students the ability to obtain a better education. In general, school vouchers provide money to parents so they can withdraw their child from a failing public school and send them to a school of their choice.

'Parental choice is much more than vouchers,' Fuller said. 'Vouchers are financial mechanisms to get to certain schools.'"
- posted 7:55 AM

 
School voucher expansion pitched
School voucher expansion pitched: "The program would cost about $81 million a year. But Husted said the state would save money because scholarships would be less than the $5,400 per pupil payments districts receive.
'What we don't want to accept is academic failure,' Husted said. 'For students that are in underperforming schools, we want to continue to give them opportunities to improve their academic futures, which means the opportunity to live a better life.'"
- posted 7:47 AM

 
Hearings to begin on tuition tax credit (SC)
The State | 03/29/2005 | Hearings to begin on tuition tax credit: "House lawmakers this week begin hearings on one of the most controversial questions facing the Legislature whether to give tax breaks for private school tuition.
It will be the first time this year that lawmakers have officially discussed the bill backed by Gov. Mark Sanford but they already have heard lots about it."
- posted 10:10 AM

 
Choosing choice: Scholarship bill passes first test (NH)
The Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News - 29-Mar-05 - Choosing choice:
Scholarship bill passes first test: "The bill, SB 131, ought to pass easily. It would create a limited number of scholarships parents could use for private or parochial school tuition. Those scholarships are less than the per-pupil cost of educating a child in public school. The portion of each child's per-pupil allotment not converted to a scholarship will remain in the public school. In this way the bill does not, as school choice critics charge, siphon off dollars from the public schools. It allows a few parents to siphon their kids from the public schools, but leaves a solid chunk of their money behind. "
- posted 10:02 AM

 
School tax credit bill is vetoed
School tax credit bill is vetoed: "'This bill is an excellent way to expand opportunities for low-income children at no cost to the state,' said Clint Bolick, president and general counsel for the Alliance for School Choice, a national advocacy group based in Phoenix. 'We're hopeful this setback will be momentary and that the Legislature and the governor can come to some accord on expanding education opportunities through the corporate tax credit.'"
- posted 9:52 AM

 
Parents need the right to pick children's schools
Newsday.com - Opinion: "Today, most parents are economically forced to pick the public school. Why shouldn't more Long Island parents be free to choose their child's school and have their fair share of education tax funds directed to that school?

Educationally, all students would benefit, because competition forces all schools to improve."
- posted 9:25 AM

 
Companies' tuition tax break vetoed
Companies' tuition tax break vetoed: "Gov. Janet Napolitano yesterday vetoed a proposed new corporate income tax break for companies that make donations for private school tuition scholarships."
- posted 9:20 AM

 
It's time to give school choice a chance
Star-Telegram | 03/26/2005 | It's time to give school choice a chance: "When shopping for groceries, you have an endless number of choices. Some of us prefer to eat what tastes good, some of us prefer to eat what's healthful. Others choose to dine somewhere in between. But the bottom line is that we all have a choice. We are not forced to pay for something that we don't want. Shouldn't we all have a choice on something so much more important?"
- posted 1:12 PM

 
The bad news about the dropout rate
The bad news about the dropout rate: "Mr. Bonsteel replied, 'The real solution is school choice,' which is advanced by his group. He pointed to the research of Jay Greene of the Manhattan Institute, who found that in 2003 Milwaukee public schools had a dismal 39 percent graduation rate compared to a much better 67 percent rate in the city's pioneering voucher schools."
- posted 1:05 PM

 
Napolitano needs to bend a bit in dealing with new Legislature
East Valley Tribune | Daily Arizona news for Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe, Mesa, Scottsdale: "But she should also recognize that Arizonans are too far down the school-choice road to buy the teachers-union bogeyman that vouchers will destroy public schools. She should be willing to bargain on a voucher bill and an expansion of the state's private school scholarship fund tax credit, which a federal judge declared constitutional on Thursday. "
- posted 1:02 PM

 
Federal judge tosses Arizona school tax-credit case
firstamendmentcenter.org: news: "U.S. District Judge Earl Carroll on March 24 granted a motion by school-choice advocates to dismiss a 2000 suit backed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona. Carroll's ruling rejected the suit's contention that the tax credit violates the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on government establishment of religion.
The credit is part of a state effort to promote school-choice opportunities in both public and private schools for students and parents from a broad spectrum of groups, Carroll wrote.
Money which would otherwise go to the state can only go to religious schools after being filtered through multiple layers of private choice, Carroll's ruling said."
- posted 12:55 PM

 
Sanford panel aims to improve education
Dateline Alabama: "The governor has charged the panel with examining the state's K-12 education system with the aim of finding ideas to improve student performance on national standardized tests and cutting the high school dropout rate, Sanford's spokesman Will Folks said. Sanford backs a bill that would give tax credits to parents whose children transfer from public schools. But the panel is not charged with studying the effect of school choice on public schools, Folks said."
- posted 12:48 PM

 
Competitive bidding needed for schools' health insurance (MI)
The Oakland Press: Opinions: Competitive bidding needed for schools' health insurance: "Let local districts shop around for health care insurance rather than being forced to buy it from the Michigan Education Special Services Association (MESSA), which is the lucrative insurance arm of the Michigan Education Association - the teachers' labor union."
- posted 10:56 AM

 
The National Board Certification For Teachers Is Still a Billion Dollar Hoax
The National Board Certification: "The difficulty level of content can be used as a measure of the quality of a professional certification. A close scrutiny of the difficulty level of the science content knowledge that teacher candidates for National Board Certification are expected to master, has revealed that it is at best a very mediocre certification2. Teachers who attain this mediocre certification are lavished with benefits in the form of extra pay or salary increases."
- posted 8:56 AM

 
Rankings cloud real school indicators
Rankings cloud real school indicators: "Spending rankings tell policymakers even less about what matters most: student performance. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Washington, D.C., spends $15,000 per pupil, the most in the nation, but students there come in dead last on the Nation's Report Card. In 2003, 90 percent of fourth- and eighth-graders in D.C. failed reading proficiency. "
- posted 6:25 AM

 
Federal judge dismisses challenge to Arizona private school tax credit
Federal judge dismisses challenge to Arizona private school tax credit: "A federal judge on Thursday rejected a second challenge to Arizona's dollar-for-dollar state income tax break for donations for private school scholarships. "
- posted 6:21 AM

 
Making Good On The Promise
PHXnews.com | Making Good On The Promise: "Public schools improve wherever meaningful competition choice exists. When schools are faced with losing children and the funds their parents command with school choice, they are forced to improve. In Florida, where children in failing public schools can attend private schools using public funds, failing schools have adopted long-overdue reforms and test scores among children at the bottom of the academic ladder have risen significantly statewide."
- posted 6:18 AM

 
Plan offers cost-effective hope of progress
The Sun News | 03/25/2005 | Plan offers cost-effective hope of progress: "How does Put Parents in Charge differ from other school choice plans? Put Parents in Charge would not be a voucher program. It would not use public money, and it would not increase government control over independent schools.
Put Parents in Charge would let parents take credits against their state income taxes to pay for the school of their choice. In this way, Put Parents in Charge is a tax cut that leaves public school budgets untouched while increasing school quality and options for parents."
- posted 6:09 AM

 
Court urged to overturn school voucher ban
Court urged to overturn school voucher ban: "An attorney for the families from Durham, Raymond and Minot said his clients would receive tuition vouchers if they sent their children to any public or non-religious private high school. But because they chose religious schools, they get no support from their towns, which they claim is unfair."
- posted 6:04 AM

 
School choice helps kids, public education
Journal Gazette | 03/25/2005 | School choice helps kids, public education: "The fact that parents want more options is not surprising. Parents know better than anyone that children have unique needs and learn differently, and they know that educational freedom will help them find a learning environment in which their child can thrive. When parents learn about school choice, they understand that it benefits students, taxpayers and communities."
- posted 5:59 AM